Album reviews: Sufjan Stevens, ‘Aporia’, Waxahatchee, ‘Saint Cloud’ and Basia Bulat, ‘Are You in Love?’
The IndependentSign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. This latest release comprises – according to the New York-based Stevens himself – the “magical moments” from 10 years of jam sessions with his stepfather, the Asthmatic Kitty record label founder Lowell Brams. There’s a sense of hope-inspiring purpose elsewhere, especially when the Boards of Canada-like drifting opening of “Agathon” makes way for a driving rhythm, hook and ripples of galactic electric-guitar noodling. “Can’t Do Much”, which she wanted to be “an extremely unsentimental love song”, is funny, frank and poetic: “We will coalesce our heaven and hell, my eyes roll around like dice on the felt.” Later, she drops the poetry. “I want you, all the time.” On “The Eye”, which sounds like the sun rising, Crutchfield professes, “I have a gift, I’ve been told, for seeing what’s there.” For singing about it, too.
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